October 15, 2006

A Great Excuse to Get In the Kitchen

The International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners (UIB) declared the 16th of October as World Bread Day. In honour of World Bread Day, Kochtopf has invited all bloggers (and non-bloggers too) to bake bread and blog about it and share it with everyone. A round up of breads from all over the world will be posted on the 17th.

The smell of bread baking alone should be enough to convince you to bake bread, but if you need another reason, why not World Bread Day? I consider both to be excellent reasons, so I whipped up a Buttermilk Honey Wheat bread with a recipe from allrecipes.com. Apparently my bread was pretty excited that he was going to be participating in World Bread Day, as it appears as though his top exploded. I will just call him an “artisan” loaf. Those crazy artists will make anything.

The recipe calls is for a bread machine, but I’ve recently relocated my bread machine to the basement and have taken to baking bread in the oven. Instead of looking for another recipe, I looked to a fellow blogger for help, Baking and Books has written a modified version of this bread for those of us who refuse to use the machine. It’s not that I have anything against the bread machine… if it means you’re not buying Wonderbread. That’s unfair of me. When I first got my bread machine I used it all the time, I was constantly chucking in some ingredients and then letting the machine do its thing. I thought it was great. But after a while I made less and less bread. Something was wrong. I started to resent the bread that I did make. I no longer had the satisfaction of kneading the dough, which is really the best part of bread making, (next to the heavenly smell that comes from the oven). The bread machine also had a habit of producing ugly bread. The top was all craggy, the bottom had a hole in it and it was always the same boring square shape. There was no mushroom effect from a loaf that’s bursting out of its pan, no freeform artisan style breads, no diversity! Every loaf looked the same, and every loaf looked ugly. Not only that, but the bread machine took up too much space on my counter, precious space that I could be using for other more important appliances. So one day, when no one was home, I unplugged the bread machine, quietly took him downstairs and laid him to rest among some old ski boots, a car seat and a roasting pan. It was 3 weeks before anyone even noticed he was missing and I’ve been producing happier, prettier bread ever since. And it’s not hard either, so get in your kitchen and make some bread!

18 comments:

hi brilynn! thank you for visiting my blog. I used to have a bread machine too, a good one, but it broke after 7-8 years me making bread in it. now i'm back to my kitchenaid, which i don't mind at all! happy bread day to you too!

mmm, looks good your bread. Pity you got bored with your bread machine. I am still happy with mine, but than make the fun breads in the weekend by hand (when i have more time), love my machine for my lunch sandwiches to take to the office, nice neat square slices :-)

I think your "artisan" bread is just lovely! It looks wonderfully crunchy. I have breadmachine that languishes in our laundry room on the top shelf. I pulled it down recently and used it to make a few "quick" loaves during a hectic week but there wasn't the satisfaction (nor the smell) that making bread by hand has. Thanks for stopping by my blog this morning!

that looks wonderful! It's bursting with artisan character. I had no idea it was World Bread Baking Day... how could I miss out?? I was thinking about making bread today or tomorrow - I think it was be today.

I love the look of your "artisan" loaf - it has character! Just the way a loaf of real, homemade bread should be! Hmmm...and I have some buttermilk in my kitchen. I've retired my breadmaker too, but I still have yet to make my own bread! If I have time, I'm going to try yours - thanks!

If you hadn't said that the explosion was unintentional, I was going to ask how you did that?

Your bread looks fantastic!

I have never felt like we had enough counterspace for a bread machine. And anything I've heard about them makes me think I never will. (I have to say that it drives me mad when people ask me if I made my bread in a machine.)

Kneading is a wonderful thing although sometimes if it's early morning, I have to remind myself that it will all be worth it.

-Elizabeth

P.S. I confess that I had a not unsimilar strangeness on the top of one of my loaves but I hid it from the camera by covering it with my oven mitt. Perhaps I should do a follow-up post to show off the error.

Hi Brilynn ~ Lovely loaf (yes I'm just now getting round to the Bread Day entries). I know what you mean about the bread machine, I'm happy to borrow one for a few months a year but other than that, it's just not as satisfying. I learned this (again) when converting a family recipe for Swedish Rye Bread (the Kitchen Parade recipe box if you're interested) and each loaf was markedly better. But then at the end, I made one last loaf of Swedish Rye by hand to make sure that recipe still worked, too. And it was the best ever ... and my Dad hoarded the last half slices. He'll be arriving in a few days and guess what I'm making ... bread ... by hand.